


Midnight Oil

by blueshift (faeithful)



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Formula One, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Implied Sexual Content, Injury Recovery, Insomnia, M/M, Racing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-20
Updated: 2020-04-20
Packaged: 2021-03-02 05:33:55
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,563
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23749996
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/faeithful/pseuds/blueshift
Summary: Trouble plagues the Republic Formula One team. With their star driver out for the foreseeable future and the upcoming season cancelled, Rex and newly-promoted Ahsoka must find a way to keep the team moving forward.It would be easier if Anakin were there.
Relationships: Anakin Skywalker & Ahsoka Tano, CT-7567 | Rex & Ahsoka Tano, Padmé Amidala/CT-7567 | Rex/Anakin Skywalker
Kudos: 19





	Midnight Oil

The room is glowing blue when Rex wakes. The light from Cody’s Kindle spills out and over its edges, and he has always kept the screen bright. Rex doesn’t know the last time he saw his brother sleep, but he isn’t one to throw stones. He stumbles into the bathroom; Cody does not say anything, and Rex does not need words.

The water is cold as it comes from the pipes. Rex cleans himself up and leaves for the hallway. He can feel the pressure of golden eyes on his back, but he does not turn around. The nosier press and fans had questioned him for his choice in companion, a brother right out of the military, but the other drivers had not batted an eye. Still, there are times Cody does not want to talk, and times that Rex does not want to bother him.

The night is quiet. It takes Rex a moment to walk through the chilled, vaulted halls and rooms to reach the place they’ve turned into a nest of sorts, cluttered and chaotic and completely at ends with everything regal about this place. Sound escapes through the ajar door, as does more bright light; someone’s awake and playing with the simulator.

It’s Tano. Rex knows as soon as he lets himself in, and for a while he watches her drive. Determination is in her silhouette against the bright television screen, and her fingers are nimble on the wheel setup Satine had purchased for them to practice on. She’s restless, that Rex can feel from across the room, but she’s channeling it in a way she rarely does outside of a car.

She’s driving one of the Separatist cars.

It’s a simulation, of course, but Rex watches with interest. He’s tried it a few times and knows itmust be different from the actual car, that the parameters can’t be entirely accurate and that it is an illusion, but it helps Rex to understand. The car is brute force, practically uncatchable on the straights, but difficult to handle and turn. It lacks the finesse of one of the Republic cars, yet Rex can see its appeal.

 _Uncatchable._ Rex feels creeping heat across his face, even though it’s far from a blush and far from real. He hadn’t been able to feel the heat at first through his helmet and he knows this, remembers it well.

He’d encountered the smell first, when it’d gotten under his coverings and his visor.

Tano finishes her laps. She comes in third, a pole position for an upcoming simulated race, but she curses the silence blue and Rex bites down a chuckle. No matter how many times she’s insisted he can call her Ahsoka, he has always insisted on Tano—it’s one of the only reliable things to get her attention.

“Want to have a turn instead of standing there?” Her tone is flippant, and in past months Rex might have left then and gone back to sit in the dark next to Cody.

Not now.

“Thanks, Tano.” But she turns and looks at him, arms crossed and shadow long. Rex sighs. “Ahsoka.”

Ahsoka climbs out of the seat, leaving Rex to take her place. “Thanks, Rex. You don’t sound like an announcer now!”

Rex takes the seat and starts to drive, and they fight to beat each other’s times to pass the night away. The curtains are down, but Rex still sees when it has gotten early.

“Padmé will show up soon.” Ahsoka’s voice is rough from use; she has always been talkative, and especially vocal on her opinions on Rex’s driving. She seems to have noticed the time as well.

“Yep.”

They’re quiet then, unusually so, each thinking the same thought—and knowing they are sharing it. “Anakin will ask for us to be there.”

“He will.” For a moment, Rex thinks of Cody, alone with his words and his worlds and far away from the reality that will come with the morning. “We’ll be there.”

The simulated laps are done. They didn’t run full races, not when Rex showed up, because they would not be able to share as evenly. If Tano—Ahsoka—is greedy when she races, at least she knows her place on the team and doesn’t keep Rex from practicing. When this set ends, Rex stretches out his arms and moves to the couch where Ahsoka is. “Do you…. remember?”

It’s a new question. Ahsoka hadn’t been ready to ask it before—or hadn’t thought Rex was ready to hear it. As it is, Rex does his very best to guide himself away from what he knows the younger driver wants to know. “Yeah, I remember.” He pauses with an honest chuckle. “I remember catching Skywalker on his knees for the senator in the paddock—where none of us were supposed to be—at an ungodly hour of the morning on the Saturday of Singapore.”

Ahsoka shrieks. _“What?”_

“Some things are retained in the memory of drivers only, to spare the crew.” Rex grins then, wild with a joke and story long since passed. “Besides, at least it didn’t involve Skywalker’s car. She’s a beauty, he didn’t want to risk her for that.”

It’s worth it for the horror and amusement on Ahsoka’s face, and for how she can barely look Padmé in the eye when she comes to check on them and deliver a message.

Anakin’s been asking for them.

In fact, Skywalker has looked worse. Rex is surprised by this knowledge, until he remembers exactly when Skywalker looked worse. But he’s still there, alive in front of Rex and lying in bed—beyond all belief—and his eyes are the lively blue Rex always associates with _Anakin._

Ahsoka looks away as much as she can as Anakin’s bandages are changed. It’s gruesome, and something Rex will never be able to easily stomach.

He still can’t even eat bacon, for goodness’ sake. Cody tells him not to give up on foods he once loved based on the smell, not over that, and Rex knows that if anyone were to understand it’d be Cody with all the things he had gone through, but—

“Season’s been cancelled?”

Anakin’s voice rasps through the room. Padmé gets water for him and guides the straw between his raw lips, and Rex is careful to look him in the eye. To show him that he still sees Anakin as a man, as a friend, as a teammate, rather than a burned-out shell.

Perhaps Anakin _is_ a shell, and has been burned out, but Rex will not give up. Not while Anakin is still alive. His lungs have cleared and healed enough to be released from the hospital, but he breathes with the whistle and rattle of strain.

It hurts. It must. But Anakin does not complain.

They say he will never drive again, and although Rex is ashamed for thinking it, that hurts even more. He has always been the second driver, the support and backup for Skywalker, and he is happy with his job. They drive and fight as a team, and they have been coming up the ranks. But no more.

At the very least, Tano is at his side, the one Plo Koon raised and trained until she was ready to seek other teams to race under. She speaks up in a way Rex never could: “Season’s cancelled. We’ll use it to get an advantage, work on the cars as best we can until they can fly away.”

Anakin laughs, despite the situation. Most of the time Tano has proven a serious student, but Rex has always appreciated what an easy understanding she and her teacher have. No matter how long he and Anakin have been working together, Rex wonders whether he is able to provoke the same amusement, the same lightening of spirits that seems to come with Tano’s presence. In fact, their most experienced driver does not seem displeased that she took his seat. “Let’s not have the nose getting too light on us, Snips,” Anakin reminds her, and Ahsoka groans. It’s clearly a reference to some shared past experience that Rex is not privy too, and he runs the pads of his fingers along the inside of his wrist where he is gripping. “Rex. Get nervous before races, not before me.”

Padmé exchanges a look with Rex as she rubs ointment and antibiotic into what’s left of Anakin’s hair, but he cannot read it. “Unless I’m just _that_ handsome like this,” Anakin goads.

Rex resists the urge to groan. He can face down a wet track with nineteen other cars, including the loose cannon Tano, and feel only adrenaline and focus, but apparently he can’t stand still during a conversation between Tano and Anakin.

He blames the wrapping that conceals almost all save for Anakin’s telling eyes. _Typical, just typical._ “Ask me again when the virtual season has started.” They have a virtual season, and the new time and resources to improve the cars. It will be difficult but not impossible…. or so Rex tells himself.

Definitely not impossible, if he can learn the same easy camaraderie Ahsoka and Anakin have. Rex sees an open space, so he will take it. But it will only stay open if Ahsoka leaves it open for him, and for once in his life on the circuit, Rex feels completely alone.

**Author's Note:**

> Not sure if I should continue this yet, but so far I'm having fun!


End file.
